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Buyer & Seller Must Know

The question whether to buy or rent is perhaps the most basic one there is. It is also one where there is no correct answer. It depends massively on your own personal preferences and situation. It is also something that is very different for those asking the question in Singapore than in most other places in the world, particularly outside of Asia.

Hong Kong’s Housing market continues to be the most expensive for a record nine years in a row, reveal the annual survey conducted by Demographia, an urban planning policy consultancy. Demographia has been conducting this survey for the last 15 years with an aim to assist global economic planning. The survey seeks to highlight its core premise that smart planning can create successful cities wherein high demographic and economic growth can be achieved without abnormal housing inflation.

In December 2018, Singapore’s overall inflation index rose to 0.5 per cent. The jump registered barely a month after the index had fallen to a six-month low of 0.3 per cent.

The rise in inflation rates occurred due to the inflation of prices for most services and retail goods. The country’s core inflation rose to 1.9 per cent in December. This was higher than the 1.7 per cent registered in November.

Located along Hougang avenue 2 in between the Kovan and Hougang Estate, the Florence regency was sold to Logan Property at a price of six-hundred and twenty nine million dollars towards the end of 2017. After topping up lease of the development to a 99 year tenure, the selling price of the entire land translates to $842 psf ppr (per square foot per plot ratio).

The reserved price of the development was set at six-hundred million dollars initially. Logan Property agreed to purchase the land at a much higher price. And each owner of the former Florence Regency will get to receive slightly above $1.8 million from the sales.

Florence Regency is a former HUDC and its plot area is approximately 386,000 square feet. Due to its huge land size, developer is able to build more than 1000 residential apartments within it.

Florence Regency will be launched in February 2019, and this project will be named as The Florence Residences. There will be 9 tower of 18 storeys and a total of 1410 residential apartments within The Florence Residences. One to Five bedroom choices will be available.

Located within the East Region of Singapore, with the Singapore Straits on its southern border, Changi and Pasir Ris to the east and north respectively and Bedok and Paya Lebar to its west, Tampines is the name of both the planning area and the residential new town. The town – at 2089 hectares – is both the third largest and third most populated new town on the island.

The delivery term of the Rapid System Transit or RTS between Johor Baru and Singapore was set for the 31st of December, 2024. Unfortunately, due to existent delays in the schedule, the RTS has all the chances to miss its delivery term and be completed later, somewhere in 2025. What caused the delay the officials are talking about? It appears that Malaysia failed to comply when it comes to several set deadlines. Thus, the entire project is delayed and, at the moment, the officials can’t see a way to bring everything on track.

The projects started with the purpose of making commuting between Bukit Chagar, in Johor Baru, and Woodlands, in Singapore, much easier. The rail is supposed to have a length of 4 kilometers and it is seen as a very important link between Singapore and Johor. But, when the Parliament asked the Transport Ministry how the project is evolving, Khaw Boon, the Transport Minister, answered that progress is not being made as they’re supposed to, since two deadlines, one in June and another in September 2018, have been missed.

According to the forecasts, the demand in the constructions sector will continue to grow, due to firm contracts from the public sector. This is great news for most companies unrolling activities in this domain. However, this year may turn out to be rather challenging for smaller companies, which will have to face a more competitive market. Considering that the past three years were far from being great when it came to constructions, the new forecast is encouraging and shows that this market niche is slowly recovering.

On January 10, 2019, renowned real estate developer, Oxley Holdings announced that they are selling their landmark projects, namely, the Mercure and Novotel hotels which is located along the Stevens Road, and had already accepted a Letter Of Intent (LOI) issued by their buyer.

Though the identity of the purchaser remains undisclosed, Oxley announced that the offer was made for $950 million.

The two hotels were opened to the public in 2017. They hold the distinction of being Oxley Holdings’ first project in their hospitality venture.

Situated close to the Scotts Road and shopping paradise of the famous Singapore’s Orchard Road, the Mercure Singapore and Novotel Singapore on Stevens are an urban architectural treat. Other than 254 hotel suites respectively, Novotel Singapore on Stevens also offers other facilities such as a 400-seat ballroom, an infinity pool, meeting facilities, food and beverage outlets, and a 24-hour fitness center. It was awarded the Gold in the 2018 Melbourne Design Awards for its creative, aesthetic and crowd engaging urban architecture. The hotels have attracted a steady stream of guests both for purposes of business and leisure since their opening.

Following the most recent round of cooling measures issued by the government in July 2018, Singapore’s property market continued its downward trend until year end. 2018 closed with 5 straight months of decline in real estate resale volumes.

December, which is typically the slowest month of the market year, reflected a 23.9% drop from November in the number of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats resales. The year ended on an overall drop which superseded the 20.1 percent fall of 2017.

Singapore’s governing authorities have been passing cooling measures now and again over the last decade to regulate and keep a check on the country’s property market. Regular investors and new buyers are both always on the watch for sudden regulatory measures when it comes to buying and selling property in Singapore. Despite this, the July measures were introduced rather unexpectedly and they have been able to produce great results in curbing the spiralling growth of the property market.

Part of the reason for the decline in the resale market in the last year is the restrictions placed on loan limits by the government in July. The new measures also highly affect the depreciating value of older units on the market. In addition, most buyers and sellers go on vacation in this season. Even so, the sales this December were by far much lower than the average sales generated in December the previous year. Only 1434 flats were resold in December 2018. By comparison, the HBD had recorded a sale of 1,587 units in December 2017.

Moreover, the third quarter of 2017 saw a wave on en-bloc sales that heavily drove investors to the property market.

The July 2018 cooling measures came as a huge shock to many developers, shareholders, property investors who were looking to make investments in en bloc deals .These measures not only scrambled up the estimated investment costs, they also took the attractiveness of the property market out for the everyday buyer to a large extent. There was no urgency or incentive to invest in flats thereafter.

The decline in demands continued despite a decrease in HDB resale prices. The prices had dropped by 0.3 percent in comparison to November rates.

Although the overall resale price index of HDB has been continually registering a steady fall since July, the fall has not been uniform across segments. The market for relatively larger units like four to five bedroom flats continued to get buyers who were willing to pay the premium demanded by the market trends. This is despite the fact that the premium is currently at an over market value rate.

In comparison there has been a dip in buyers for executive and one to three bedroom flats. The sales of flats have also garnered different results in different districts. Sengkang and Punggol for instance, have already reached their minimum occupation period and are beginning their resale phase.

Most flats in these areas have sold for good prices. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that these are completely new flats and have been well-designed with the latest state of art facilities at affordable rates. That the government is trying to build the areas up as digital districts may also have influenced buyers’ choices of investment in these areas.

In addition, it has been noted that the prices of flats in non-mature estates have registered an increase of 0.2 percent in December. In contrast, flats in mature estates have recorded a dip by 1 percent.

The iconic Golden Mile Complex may turn into an important integrated development project if it manages to find an en bloc buyer, says the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). This was announced on January 8, 2019, in response to an application submitted for redeveloping the existing complex with an additional block.

The Golden Mile Complex, situated on the Golden mile stretch between Nicoll Highway and Beach Road. It holds historic importance as the Urban Renewal Department of the Housing and Development Board’s first Sales of Site programme. The programme was conceptualized as part of a redevelopment project of Singapore’s Central Area.

Completed in 1973, the 16-storeyed Golden Mile Complex used to be one of the highlights of the area. Built at an original cost of S$18 million, the complex integrated several functionalities including shopping malls, clubs, ticketing centers besides housing units. The property has a land area of 1.3 hectares approx and was designed with a step-terraced architectural layout. The complex is considered to be one of the earliest mixed-use developments in Singapore’s urban landscape and has been redeveloped in minor ways time and again since.

However, in the recent past, the complex has turned into an urban slum owing to personal development and extensions carried out by individual owners within the site. Much of these personal add-ons and constructions have been carried out without a thought to others around the apartments and this has turned the site into an eyesore. The Golden Mile complex has been critiqued several times in recent times for turning into a source of national disgrace.

The complex has been on a 99-year-old leasehold since 1969. But owing to its current dilapidated state the URA decided to put it up on en bloc sale with an $800 million reserve price. More than 80% of the current owners signed an agreement to this effect in August 2018.

At the current reserve price, the current residential owners, who are 68 in number, stand to get a gross payout of between $1.27 million and $6 million each. The 418 shop units may get a payout anywhere between $200,000 and $7 million each, dependent on the size, location and other specifics of their units. The gross payout for the 227 office units is similarly estimated to be between $360,000 and $3 million each.

As of now, if an en-bloc buyer is found, the URA has agreed to consider an estimated 86,000 sqm of the complex space for mixed-use development with facilities like offices, serviced apartments, hotels and retail spaces as part of the plan. This is subject to the buyer’s willingness to conserve the historic main building of the complex which has rightfully become a landmark in Singapore’s urban history.

It is hoped that a buyer is found soon and the new Golden Mile Complex will turn into an essential part of the redevelopment of the Beach Road corridor. This would indeed be a unique opportunity for preservation and incorporation of an iconic site into a new development if the selling goes through smoothly.

Depending on the buyer’s proposals for the land use, a new premium and lease upgrading premium will be made effective. It is hoped that the new buyer will top the lease up to 99 years as well. The tender exercise for the sale will be closed on January 30, 2019, at 3 pm SGT.

The HDB allowed some homeowners to obtain their money back on the remainder of their leases, if they wanted to move out of the homes they bought at one point. But, unfortunately, not all homeowners were able to enjoy this buyback scheme until recently. This led to the appearance of numerous senior citizens that are living in large apartments, which can generate rather considerable costs. Mr. Tang Lum Sui, for example, is one of those seniors. He is a widower and living in a large apartment, with 5 rooms. For quite a while now he’s been trying to obtain access to this scheme, but without any success.

There is good news for residents in Singapore. Soon there will be actually be a smart phone mobile apps that residents can make use of to secure an appointment with the financial banks, clinics or other facilities located in HDB estates. This application will also let them know when local businesses are offering specials.

When a property agent provides services in the real estate industry; he/she definitely deserve some amount as commission. But most of the sellers and buyers often get confused about how much they should pay. Well! There are several factors associated with the property agent’s commission. If you are taking services from these professionals to buy, sell or rent a property, below we have highlighted few details to ease your confusion for commission payment.

Types of property agents:

The Sellers’s/ Landlord’s Agent:

Property sellers and landlords often need an agent to plan the promotion and presentation of their unit through various means. These agents also bring buyers from different locations while scheduling and managing the viewing process. Even the legal issues and negotiation related affairs are also handled by these agents.

The Tenant’s/Buyer’s Agent:

These property agents work for searching appropriate properties for the clients and coordinate viewings as per their need. They also take responsibility for negotiating with the landlord’s/seller’s agent.

Common practices for the commission:

The rates for agent’s commission are listed below as per the complexity involved in various property deals:

For rented and leased properties:

In this case, landlords or sellers are responsible for paying agent’s commission; tenant doesn’t pay any fee. In Singapore, it the rented property is above S$3,500 with two years lease, landlords pay an amount equal to one month’s rent. Whereas, if the property of the sameamount has only one year’s lease, landlords pay half month’s rent in the form of agent’s commission.

If the property is rented for a two-year lease, but the amount is below S$3500, landlords pay one month’s commission, and for a one-year lease, the fee is half a month’s rent. However, if the tenant has also hired an agent to assist in property search, they also pay one month’s rent and half month’s rent as commission in respective cases.

It is important to understand that there is no hard and fast rule about this commission amount; the terms are described only on the basis of common practices.

Commission for condos:

In case an agent provides services to the seller for finalizing the deal of a non-landed private property as like condos; the seller has to pay 2% of the actual amount to the agent. The seller’s agent usually divides this money with the buyer’s agent.

HBD resale flats:

Those who are seeking property agent’s services for processing HDB resale flats need to pay a reasonable amount in the form ofcommission. As per the common scenario in Singapore, sellers usually pay around 2% of the total amount whereas buyer’s pay 1% of the total amount to the agent as his professional fee or commission.

Landed Properties:

For the simple landed properties, sellers need to pay around 2% of the total amount to the agent as commission. However, the buyer does not pay any amount because mostly the seller’s agent takes responsibility to split the amount between both service providers.

If you are in search of some trustworthy property agent to sell or buy property; it is important to talk about the commission amount in advance to ensure complete peace of mind.

The information above were extracted from the article link below, visit the site for more details now,

Do you know that if you are buying a new launch condo directly from the developer, you do not have any to pay any professional fee to the property agent? The interest rate for the bank loan of a development under-construction is also lower than that of a resale condo in the initial stage. Take a look at the list of some of the latest new condo in Singapore below,

The HDB renectly launched great news for all foreign tenants that are looking for HDB apartments for rent in Singapore. Those that have work or immigration passes that exceed a period of two years will be able to enjoy longer rental periods. This way, they won’t have to worry about where they will leave after a while. But, it is worth knowing that the new changes are not applicable to all foreigners. In the case of Malaysian and Singaporean citizens, the rental period of flats remains the same, and that is three years only.

Because the housing options in Hong Kong started to be rather short, due to the high demand, nano flats represented one of the best choices a couple of years ago. A nano flat is a very small living area, smaller than the space dedicated to parking a car. Due to its very reduced size, it was possible to build a higher number in a rather short time, so that the demand could be met. Practically, this type of residential unit offers the owner the chance to sleep somewhere safe and warm, but that was about it. When these units first emerged, they managed to grab the attention of home seekers. But, as it appears, the popularity of the nano flats is beginning to significantly drop.